D-Day to Germany, 1944 color home movies
December 21, 2014 8:11 AM   Subscribe

D-Day to Germany, 1944. Color home movies by Allied pool reporter Jack Lieb. There is little to no combat, it's all behind the lines offering a different perspective from total war. Some famous actors and writers appear. The best part is the narrator, Jack, who is giving a viewing in 1976. His spontaneous narration and smooth style is enchanting.
posted by stbalbach (9 comments total) 39 users marked this as a favorite
 
Those are great.
posted by MartinWisse at 8:33 AM on December 21, 2014


Very good, thanks for this post.
posted by Daddy-O at 10:13 AM on December 21, 2014


Fantastic! Thanks for posting this.
posted by Klaxon Aoooogah at 10:23 AM on December 21, 2014


"And here's Ernest Hemingway..."

Heck of a home movie, and I think it captures more of the actual business of war than many professional documentaries. Lots of lolling around in the sunshine under trees, splashing around in lakes and playing with smiling children, then violent death. Civilians everywhere trying to lead normal lives. A liberation march through a city, cut short - briefly - by an ambush. Fatal accidents, but no time to pause.

(Also some shots of places I knew from growing up there thirty years later, which is always arrestmg)
posted by Devonian at 11:56 AM on December 21, 2014 [2 favorites]


Really interesting. (Though why did I read a couple of the sewer dwellers in the Comments?)

I may have told the story of my Naval aviator father. He was in the European theater. He once told me of flying over a peaceful orchard in southern France, when suddenly: "The trees started firing at us."
posted by NorthernLite at 5:09 PM on December 21, 2014 [1 favorite]


It's a little odd to see footage from this period with that slightly sped up tempo I associate with film from earlier in the 20th century. I wish there was an easy way to adjust the playback rate to make it look more natural.
posted by monospace at 8:17 PM on December 21, 2014 [1 favorite]


"Members of the 101rst airborne boarding landing craft" -- I don't think so Jack.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 12:39 PM on December 22, 2014


The 327th Infantry Regiment: "the majority of this unit landed by sea on Utah Beach the afternoon of D-Day +1, 7 June 1944, due to a shortage of glider tow planes."
posted by stbalbach at 2:07 PM on December 26, 2014


Wow! I stand corrected.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 1:29 PM on December 27, 2014


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